a Guide to Dolphin Code?

[dax006]

Is there any technical write-up on the Dolphin Code? I'm a programmer by profession who would like to fix it so the sound doesn't bugger out on me when I load a state. (ambitious, I know, but it's just so basic..)

I've looked at the code, and there's just a lot and it's kind of messy. I've searched for documentation online, but cannot find any.

I'm assuming every developer here had this problem at some point? How did you get started?

[sasuketaichou]

http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/

[dax006]

What you linked said this:

* Mostly written in C++
* Very large, active development team
* Few source code comments
* Decreasing year-over-year development activity

I found the last two comments damning. You, the dolphin team, are not getting more developers joining your ranks because the code is not commented well enough. Yes, I understand it's open-source. I have worked on open source before. Yes, I know it's C++. If I downloaded the code and had a look at it I'd be a pretty poor programmer if I couldn't figure out what language it's in.

I'll try to be more clear. In my work, when joining a new project, there is usually a write-up about it. It's usually got a flowchart, a list of major functions, maybe how they work, an explanation of the folder structure, that sort of thing. In dolphin's case - what file and line number gets input from the keyboard? Or why are there so many folders labeled some variation of 'test'?

[skid]

Are you working in Windows or Linux?

The Visual Studio solution has the code divided up into projects so you can kinda tell which code goes where.

Linux developers work off the sub-directory structure, I think. Maybe they use the SConscript or cmakelists to understand the structure.

Very few of the developers on the project understand every line of code. How I got started was to pick a problem and work back from there. Gradually I understood the project more and more. I also asked the other devs for tips in the irc channel (#dolphin-emu on efnet)

All emulators are structured the same - it's a virtual machine. There is a CPU core which emulates the fetch execute cycle of the Wii's PowerPC. The PowerPC hits hardware registers which the other subsystems (like the graphics, sound and input) react on.

Your goal is a good one to start on. State saving/loading is in the file called State.cpp. The subsystems respond to the command to save state/load state in a function called "DoState". If the sound is cutting out when loading a state, it seems like part of the state is not being restored in the sound (DSP) section. So, check the DSP project/sub-directory and verify that all state variables have been captured in "DoState".

Hope that helps.